Sunday, August 27, 2006

The Iris Is Closing.

I just found out tonight that the Sci Fi channel in the US is cancelling Stargate SG1. Unless I missed it I don't think it got any coverage in the local paper. In any case as you might expect there have been the inevitable calls for petitions and so forth to be organised in an effort to save the series. Good luck to them, but personally I think the series has probably had a long enough run. They recently aired the 200th episode of the series on Sci Fi, and ten seaons and more than 200 episodes is a great run for any series, let alone a science fiction one. The producers are reportedly still interested in followup made for TV movies or a miniseries, so it may not be done yet. But a clause in their contract with Sci Fi makes its appearance on another network as a weekly series unlikely.

The spinoff Stargate Atlantis series will continue. But some fans are speculating the death of the parent show may mean its days are numbered as well.

With the series ending I may have to work up an idea for a commentary that came to mind recently.

The series has made Amanda Tapping a familiar face to untold numbers of sci fi fans, but my first encounter with her was Canadian TV ads. I can still remember the Advil ad she did all those years ago. Not a surprise really given that I found her a very attractive young woman at the time.

Those two pictures at the top of the post? They're of Swedish poker player Bengt Sonnert and of actor Michael Shanks, who plays Daniel Jackson on SG1. Maybe its just me, but to my eyes Sonnert looks a lot like Shanks, which I found kind of amusing when watching Sonnert compete in the Monte Carlo Millons poker tournament on TV. I'm sure it's pretty obvious which is which, but if not I've proven my point.